When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus answered from Deuteronomy, “Him only shall you serve” – a single-hearted devotion that excludes every divided loyalty, idolatry, and compromise. The lecture works through the temptation narrative in Matthew 4 in detail, showing that true worship refuses to elevate anything or anyone above God, and that what a person truly adores will always shape what they obey.
The second session applies this exclusive devotion to those who lead the church. Using Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, it charges ministers to guard themselves and the flock against savage wolves and false teachers who arise even from among their own number. An overseer must himself be born of the Spirit, a holy man of godly character, following peace with all people and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.